Haryana Congress Splits Into Three Factions Ahead of Assembly Elections
New Delhi: The Congress Party has split into three factions in Haryana as the Assembly polls in the agrarian state draw near. While Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kumari Selja factions had been covertly working against each other, the other Haryana leader, Randeep Singh Surjewala, has now opened up a third front, as he launched his own “parivartarn rally”. Even as the senior Hooda had been trying to project a united front, both Ms Selja and Mr Surjewala skipped the first strategy meeting chaired by the chief of the candidate selection committee, Ajay Maken, last week. The Hooda clan along with the state party office-bearers were, however, present at the meeting.
Mr Surejwala, a Rajya Sabha member and another strong contender for the post of chief minister, is gradually distancing himself from the SRB (Sailja-Randeep-Birendra Singh) faction. He already kept Mr Hooda’s group at arms length.
Separating himself from either Mr Hooda’s “Haryana Maange Hisab” rally and Ms Selja’s “Congress Sandesh Yatra”, Mr Surjewala kickstarted the “parivartan” rallies across the state at the Assembly level. While he is trying to showcase his separate political existence through these rallies, instead of accepting the leadership of Mr Hooda or Ms Selja, he wants to stand firmly in line for the post of CM.
The first rally was held in Panipat on Sunday while the coming rallies will be held in Karnal and Jind on August 17 and 18 respectively.
Last week Mr Maken chaired the meeting attended by HPCC president Udai Bhan, the remaining three MPs from Haryana, and former Union minister Birender Singh and other senior leaders.
The meeting resolved to launch an aggressive campaign against the BJP. Besides, some participants also suggested measures to bring all warring leaders of the party on one platform.
In a bid to avoid further embarrassment caused by statements made by those hailing from warring groups or the Hooda and Selja factions, senior leaders asked participants to ensure maximum restraint in front of the media while referring to issues related to differences of opinion on certain issues of pre-poll or post-poll leadership.
Referring to the absence of Mr Surjewala and Ms Selja, Mr Maken said the two leaders could not attend the meeting due to pre-scheduled election programmes in the field.
However, Mr Hooda ruled out any internal differences in the state unit, particularly Ms Selja. “There’s no divided house (in the Haryana Congress). These are all cooked-up stories. All of us are working for the Congress.”
Deccan Chronicle
